My E420s Review

After having done a lot of research, playing around with other peoples' laptops, and watching loads of videos,
I finally decided to buy the E420s about two weeks or so ago. So, here's what I think of it, for anyone that
cares or anyone who may be considering one:

Build:
Build quality is great. No, I understand it isn't your ultra-durable "real" Thinkpad with a rollcage and all that,
but compared to just about everything else this thing is built quite nicely. Finish is metal but feels almost
like a rubber which is good. The hinges are metal, which I know is a big plus for me and a lot of others.
Very slim; light, but not to the point of feeling cheap; overall very good quality, far surpassing that of
most other laptops I have seen.

Screen:
Here's where I think most people will be on the fence. The 1366x768 display is lower than a lot of people
like, but I find it fine. On a bigger screen it would be more of an issue, but on a 14'' display it looks just
fine to me. The E420s only comes in glossy finish, so it does show dust easily, so I carry around a microfiber
cloth in my case to wipe it. Haven't tried it in the sun since it's over a hundred degrees here usually, but I
think in direct light any display would have glare. In a classroom setting (where I use it), I don't have any
trouble seeing what's on the screen even with lights shining from behind me. All in all not anything to write
home about, but far from the "trash" I have seen people make it out to be.

Keyboard and Trackpad:
The keyboard has gotten rave reviews everywhere I've seen, and it's true...this thing feels great to type on,
definitely the best laptop keyboard I've used. My one complaint about it is the buttons; they all have stickers
on the keys instead of being printed on and some of the keys are in strange places (Ctrl and FN reversed).
Not a big deal though. With the removal of two screws on the bottom, the whole keyboard can be slid up and
out to replace/add RAM or whatever else. The trackpad was initially not too great, but I downloaded an updated
driver for it and now it responds much better, although I prefer to use the Trackpoint when I am not using a mouse.

Ports/Drives:
Not much to say here. I wish it had USB 3.0, but I don't transfer files large enough on a frequent enough
basis to really care too much about that. I like the slot loading DVD drive. The powered USB port is useful
if you have a smartphone to charge it or anything else USB powered. The HDMI was a big plus for me as I
like to watch videos and movies on the internet a lot since I don't have cable. Other than that, it's pretty
standard going here.

Other:
I was surprised at the amount of pre-loaded software that came on here, but most of it wasn't too bad. I
will probably remove a few things I don't want but other than that, everything's pretty standard.
With about 25-30 process running at any given time, the memory usage never gets above about 1.5GB.
The fingerprint scanner is a nice extra to have...makes it a little easier than typing a password.



Overall, I'm really happy with my purchase. Two of my classmates have E420's, and I was trying to
decide between that one the E420s. I can tell you that if you are in the same boat, definitely go with
the E420s if you can afford to spend the extra money on it. The overall design and quality is much
better and it just feels like a more solid laptop. I ordered another 4GB of RAM to bring it to the max of
8GB, and also a Kensington Slimblade mouse to go with it. After all is said and done, it will be a nice
workstation, definitely better than the 10 year old Toshiba Satellite I had

 

nice mini review of the E420s, I recently bought myself the regular E420 because it was on sale. Its good to know that the regular E420 has the ability to accept 9mm SSDs whereas the E420s can take 7mm drives. All in all I'm pretty happy with this laptop. Lots of people are asking if the hinges are plastic, no they are metal painted black and as sturdy as the old thinkpad hinges you know and love.

It may not have a rollcage like the T or X series thinkpads but for my purposes its perfect as it doesn't travel much. Also its couple hundred bucks less than a base T series thinkpad.

 

Great review. I'm still waiting on the much promised AMD Radeon GPU to come to the states, but still sounds like a great student / office laptop...

 

I really like your overall summary of the notebook. I agree, there aren't many Thinkpad Edge 420s reviews around.

I'm sitting on the fence about buying a sleek but basic Thinkpad Edge 420s vs. souped up Thinkpad T420.

What's the configuration of your E420s? Did you buy an extra warranty? I was thinking about a two year warranty "just in case" because you never know.

 

As it sits now, I am a little ticked off with Lenovo customer support. I ended up having a bright dead pixel in the corner of the screen. Maybe not a big distraction to some, but if I pay $750 for a brand new laptop, I don't want to have any problems with it. Lenovo customer support has let me know over the phone today that they will not be fixing it under warranty, although they sent me a box to ship it to them and said that they would, so basically they went back on their word. I guess I will just have to deal with it even though it bugs the hell out of me and looks like crap. Hopefully you guys will have better luck with yours.

 

That is how it is with all manufacturers. You need to have a certain amount of dead or stuck pixels to warrant a replacement. A few companies will have a zero dead pixel guarantee for 30 days if you pay x amount of $ for it. There are programs that can help to get pixels unstuck, so you may want to look into it. Just be glad that pixel isn't in the middle of the screen.....

 

More than likely I will end up just eating the 15% restocking fee and returning it, seeing as how I am in a pretty tough time as of the last month from not getting paid at all (good ol' government, gotta love them). It sucks but I need the money and I don't want a screen that is, in my opinion, messed up. I may just skip Lenovo altogether next time I want to buy a laptop.

 

Managed to get the person on the other end today to email me a couple of free shipping labels and after I told him what had happened with the whole warranty situation, he said I would not have to pay any kind of restocking fee. Went ahead and shipped both the laptop and the case back free of charge so as of right now I am just waiting for my refund to hit my account. I'm going to put it up in my savings and possibly wait until I have enough money for something a step up from the Edge, most likely an ASUS gaming laptop.

 

Well this whole situation is too bad, my E420 has a hot pixel on the lower right side of the screen, it only is visible if the area around it is white, Lenovo said there policy is to replace the screen if it has 2 or more messed up pixels, all well, I am fine with the one, if there is two they will replace, so no big deal to me, my gf macbook has a dead pixel right in the middle of her screen, but she as had hers over a year.